Hey Pac-Man, why so serious?

The year of Pac-Man continues as yet another Pac-related project has been announced during the little guy’s anniversary year of celebration. This time around though, rather than a game, it comes in the form of a new Pac-Man themed television show.

The new project, led by former Marvel producer Avi Arad, will be a 3D animated show that focuses on social issues and education. Wait, what?!? That’s right, Pac-Man is returning to the small screen as a perpetual after school special. Arad has stated that the series will focus on the trials in tribulations of Pac-Man’s high school life as the only yellow one in Pac-Land. He will do so alongside his best friends, Inky, Pinky, Blinky, and Clyde.

I am all for taking some liberties with a franchise, but this is a little too much for my liking. How can you take the characters who have been Pac-Man’s arch rivals for 30 years and suddenly make them friends. That would be like Nintendo suddenly turning Bowser into Mario’s best friends. Granted, I am sure that this will work fine for the new generation of viewers who are not familiar with the Pac-Man franchise, but those who know the past may not get on board.

Then again, Arad has done some really good work at injecting social concerns and issues into projects like Spiderman and X-Men in the past. I am willing to give it a chance, but I don’t like what I have heard so far. There is no tentative date for the series’ debut